Livehire look to increase number of women employees in tech industry

LiveHire and insight and technical company CEB have been joined by DropBox, Amazon, and Salesforce as foundation members.

Livehire, an Australian hiring platform, has joined several tech giants who have an ambitious plan to boost the number women working in the technology industry and help solve its skills shortage.

LiveHire and insight and technical company CEB have been joined by DropBox, Amazon, and Salesforce as foundation members.

Calling themselves The Women in Tech platform, they aim to create a community of ten thousand women who may not have the technology skills but are interested in working in the tech industry.

According to Mike Haywood, co-founder and CEO ofLiveHire, the ultimate goal of the project is to create a community of one million women and one thousand companies. The companies will then bring the existing population into the technology industry, and diversify its gender diversity.

Haywood says that a new model for recruiting is needed because the education system is not producing enough technology graduates that Australian companies need to succeed in the digital industry.

To counter this, Haywood says that corporations should focus on adjacent skills that already exist in the workforce, to create non-traditional career paths into technology roles.

Christy Forest, CEB managing director for Asia Pacific, says relationship management, teamwork, and learning agility are some of the critical skills and competencies ECB has recognized as crucial for IT professionals.

"The irony right now is that the demand for roles in technology is outpacing supply, at a time when women see tech as unviable and welcoming," Christy says.

CEB statistics show that of the 20 most-in-demand skills in Australia, 14 are related to specific technological abilities, and there is greater demand for skills related to exploiting technology.